Techniques for managing multiple resource element groups

ABSTRACT

One or more devices, systems, and/or methods for utilizing a control resource set comprising a physical downlink control channel and a plurality of resource element group bundles containing different quantities of resource element groups. An example method for wireless communication comprises forming a first resource region comprising at least a first type of REG bundle and a second type of REG bundle, and performing a control channel transmission using the first resource region. The first type and the second type of REG bundles may comprise different quantities of resource element groups, and the first type and the second type of REG bundles may correspond to candidates of different aggregation levels.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent document is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/787,765, filed Feb. 11, 2020, which is a continuation of andclaims benefit of priority to International Patent Application No.PCT/CN2017/097231, filed on Aug. 11, 2017. The entire content of thebefore-mentioned patent application is incorporated by reference as partof the disclosure of this application.

BACKGROUND

With the development of wireless communication technology and theincreasing demand for communication from users, the 5th generationmobile communication (5G) technology has become the trend of futurenetwork development in order to meet the needs of higher, faster andnewer communication. The 5G communication system is considered to beimplemented in a higher and wider frequency band (e.g., above 3 GHz) inorder to accomplish a higher data rate. High frequency communication ischaracterized by increased transmission loss and penetration loss. Dueto the extremely short wavelength of the high-frequency signal, a largenumber of antenna arrays can be used to enable beamforming technology.Beamforming technology utilizes a focused beam in an intended directionof the recipient, thereby improving the coverage of the high-frequencysignal of the 5G communication system and making up for some of thesignal loss resulting from the high frequency.

In the conventional communication system, the resources used for mappingthe downlink control channel are distributed in the whole controlresource region at a fixed resource granularity for every aggregationlevel. However, this traditional mechanism of resource mapping limitsthe channel estimation performance and transmit diversity effect of thedownlink control channel.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present disclosure, a device and/or method is/areprovided for forming a control resource set that includes a physicaldownlink control channel, and a plurality of resource element groupbundles that include different quantities of resource element groups.

As another example, a device and/or method is/are provided for receivinga control resource set that includes a physical downlink controlchannel, and a plurality of resource element group bundles includingdifferent quantities of resource element groups.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

While the techniques presented herein may be embodied in alternativeforms, the particular embodiments illustrated in the drawings are only afew examples that are supplemental of the description provided herein.These embodiments are not to be interpreted in a limiting manner, suchas limiting the claims appended hereto.

FIG. 1A is an illustrative structure of a time-frequency grid of a radioresource for transmitting data and control channels in a downlink of awireless communication system.

FIG. 1B shows an illustrative arrangement of overlapping candidates atdifferent aggregation levels.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates resource mapping of resource elementsand resource element groups, which comprise four logically continuousresource elements in the first N symbols of a subframe, where N can be1, 2, 3 or 4.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates arrangements of control channelelements to form a PDCCH of various different aggregation levels.

FIG. 4 shows an arrangement that is likely to result in blockage of acandidate of a physical downlink control channel as a result ofinterleaving control channel resources having different aggregationlevels.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of resources having differentaggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein resource elementgroup (REG) bundles subjected to second level interleaving include 3REGs.

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative embodiment of resources having differentaggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein REG bundlessubjected to second level interleaving include 2 REGs.

FIG. 7 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein REGbundles subjected to second level interleaving include 3 REGs.

FIG. 8 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein REGbundles subjected to second level interleaving include 2 REGs.

FIG. 9 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein REGbundles subjected to second level interleaving include 2 REGs.

FIG. 10 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein REGbundles subjected to second level interleaving include 2 REGs.

FIG. 11 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein inter REGbundles are split during interleaving into inter REG bundles.

FIG. 12 shows an illustrative technique for defining a low aggregationlevel CCE index based on a logical inner REG bundle index.

FIG. 13 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein inter REGbundles are split during interleaving into inter REG bundles.

FIG. 14 shows an illustrative mapping method for mapping inner REGbundle index values to CCE index values at the small aggregation level.

FIG. 15 shows another illustrative embodiment of resources havingdifferent aggregation levels undergoing interleaving, wherein inter REGbundles are split during interleaving into inter REG bundles.

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative mapping method for mapping inner REGbundle index values to CCE index values at the small aggregation level.

FIG. 17 is an illustration of a scenario involving an exampleconfiguration of a base station (BS) that may utilize and/or implementat least a portion of the techniques presented herein.

FIG. 18 is an illustration of a scenario involving an exampleconfiguration of a user equipment (UE) that may utilize and/or implementat least a portion of the techniques presented herein.

FIG. 19 is an illustration of a scenario featuring an examplenon-transitory computer readable medium in accordance with one or moreof the provisions set forth herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Subject matter will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, andwhich show, by way of illustration, specific example embodiments. Thisdescription is not intended as an extensive or detailed discussion ofknown concepts. Details that are known generally to those of ordinaryskill in the relevant art may have been omitted, or may be handled insummary fashion.

The following subject matter may be embodied in a variety of differentforms, such as methods, devices, components, and/or systems.Accordingly, this subject matter is not intended to be construed aslimited to any illustrative embodiments set forth herein as examples.Rather, the embodiments are provided herein merely to be illustrative.Such embodiments may, for example, take the form of hardware, software,firmware or any combination thereof.

According to the LTE system, a Physical Downlink Control Channel(“PDCCH”) is transmitted over one or more logically continuous controlchannel elements (“CCEs”). Different numbers of logically continuousCCEs occupied by a PDCCH transmission correspond to a differentaggregation levels (“ALs”). When the CCE aggregation level is low, thePDCCH capacity is large but needs to be demodulated under favorablechannel conditions. When the CCE aggregation level is high, the capacityof the PDCCH is reduced, but the PDCCH can be reliably demodulated inpoor channel environments.

The PDCCH in the LTE system performs channel estimation and demodulationof the control channel based on the cell-specific reference signal(referred to as CRS) and supports only the distributed PDCCH, which mapsa PDCCH to a discrete resource element group (REG). Distributed PDCCH ismainly implemented by interleaving. The interleaving is the process howto map PDCCH data flow to discrete physical resources. The interleavingused in LTE is defined based on a specified size of matrix and followsfollowing procedure: 1) a PDCCH data flow is written in the matrix rowby row; 2) perform the inter-column permutation for the matrix based ona predefined pattern, an example of such predefined pattern beingdefined by the expression:

P(j)

_(je{0,1, . . . ,C) _(subblock) _(CC) ⁻¹}

where P(j) is the original column position of the j-th permuted columnand C_(subblock) ^(CC) is the number of columns of the matrix; 3) readout column by column from the inter-column permuted matrix. And then theinterleaved PDCCH data flow is mapped to the physically continuousresources, which realize the PDCCH data flow mapping in the discretephysical resources. It should be noted that if the size of the PDCCHdata flow is smaller than the size of the matrix, some dummy bits arepadded in the front the PDCCH data flow to make the size of them are thesame. Equivalently, the PDCCH data flow before interleaving can beunderstood as physical resource index and the PDCCH data flow afterinterleaving can understood as logical resource index, which means thatphysical index of the resource can be interleaved according to the aboveinterleaving process, and the PDCCH data flow (original and notinterleaved) is mapped to the logically continuous resources withlogically continuous index.

In LTE, for all aggregation levels, the interleaved base units areeither a REG, or a PDCCH data stream corresponding to a REG, and theinterleaved resource ranges are consistent for different aggregationlevels. But, in practice, this is not beneficial to the channelestimation performance and diversity gain of the downlink controlchannel, especially in the multi-beam scenario. Therefore, theabove-mentioned defects should be avoided in the design of the 5Gcommunication system.

According to the new Radio Access Technology (“NR”) in the 5Gcommunication system, the physical downlink control channel in the NRsystem (Referred to as NR-PDCCH) is based on the demodulation referencesignal (DMRS) for control channel estimation and demodulation, andsupports both localized and distributed transmission types. Distributedtransmission is supported through interleaving. In order to reduce theblind detection complexity and terminal power consumption, one or morecontrol resource sets (“CORESET”) are configured for a user equipment(“UE”) such as a mobile phone, portable computer terminal, etc. The UEonly receives the downlink control channel on the configured CORESET(s).A downlink control channel is associated with only one CORESET. MultipleCORESETs can be overlapped or partially overlapped with each other. Acontrol resource set includes multiple REGs, and a REG is defined as aPRB during a symbol as explained in detail below. Also as explainedbelow, an NR-PDCCH includes one or more CCEs, one of which includes sixREGs. Within a CCE, including one or more REG bundles, each REG bundlehas a size of 2 or 3 or 6 consecutive REGs. The product of the number ofREG bundles contained in a CCE and the number of REGs contained in eachREG bundle is equal to 6. The REGs in a REG bundle can only use the sameprecoding. Different REG bundles allow the use of different precoding.

Distributed NR-PDCCH is mapped to discrete physical resources with theREG bundle (e.g., a plurality of REGs) as the base unit. The larger thesize of REG bundle is, the better the channel estimation performancethrough the joint channel estimation can be achieved. The smaller thesize of REG bundle is, the more diversity gain the PDCCH gets.Therefore, the size of the REG bundle needs to establish to balance thechannel estimation performance and the diversity gain. For example, forhigh aggregation level control channels (e.g., aggregation levels 4, 8),which are usually used in cases where the channel environment is poor,it is advantageous to use a large (e.g., above a threshold as describedbelow) REG bundle to improve the channel estimation performance and tocompare the resources contained in the control channel of the largeaggregation level. For a small aggregation-level control channel (e.g.,aggregation levels 1, 2), the DMRS channel estimation performance isbetter in itself because of the better channel environment, so a small(e.g., below a threshold as described below) REG bundle can be used toachieve improved diversity gain. However, if the interleaving fordifferent aggregation levels is based on the REG bundles with differentsizes, candidates from different aggregation levels will overlapaccording to the traditional interleaving in LTE. For example, onecandidate of lower AL would be partially overlapped with two candidatesof higher AL. This is believed to result in more collisions betweencandidates at different aggregation levels, which means the PDCCHblocking probability would be raised. When the UE is blocked, such aswhen the resource corresponding to the candidate of the UE is occupiedby or partially occupied by other users' candidates, the UE cannot bescheduled with the base station (“BS”). An example of such blocking isdescribed below with reference to FIG. 4.

On the other hand, the UE tries to receive the downlink control channelin a given search space by blind detection. A search space includes oneor more aggregation levels, each corresponding to one or more downlinkcontrol channel candidates. Each candidate includes L CCEs, where L isthe aggregation level. In order to reduce the complexity of channelestimation, the NR-PDCCH should support channel estimation reuse betweencandidates of different aggregation levels in a search space. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 1B, when the low aggregation level candidatesare located under the resource of the high aggregation level candidates,the channel estimation for the candidates of low aggregation level canbe reused for the candidates of high aggregation level, which reducesthe complexity of the channel estimation at UE, and avoid a prolongeddelay that would otherwise occur due to the channel estimation.

With reference to the drawings, the communication technique utilized bythe present cellular communication system can be Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (OFDM). FIG. 1A illustrates a structure oftime-frequency grid 100 of radio resources for transmitting data andcontrol channels (e.g., PDCCH) in a downlink of a wireless communicationsystem utilizing OFDM. In FIG. 1A, the horizontal axis denotes time t,and the vertical axis denotes frequency f. An OFDM symbol, arranged incolumns 105 in FIG. 1A, is the smallest transmission unit on the timeaxis. A slot 110 includes NSY OFDM symbols. Although N is equal to 14according to embodiments described herein for illustration purposes, thevalue of N according to some embodiments can be any integer value suchas 7, 14, 21, etc., depending on factors such as subcarrier spacing, forexample. A subframe 115 includes two slots 110. A slot 110 isapproximately 0.5 ms in duration, and a subframe is approximately 1.0 msin duration. A subcarrier, arranged in rows 120 in FIG. 1A, is thesmallest transmission unit in the frequency domain, and the entiresystem transmission band includes NB subcarriers.

In the time-frequency grid 100, a Resource Element (“RE”) 125 is thebasic unit indicated by the combination of a discrete OFDM symbol indexand a discrete subcarrier index. The Resource Block (“RB”) or PhysicalResource Block 130 includes the 14 consecutive OFDM symbols in the timedomain tin FIG. 1A and the NSC consecutive subcarriers in the frequencydomain 110. For some embodiments, the value of NSC can be any integersuch as 6, 12, 18, etc., but will be described herein as being equal to12 for the sake of brevity and clarity. Accordingly, an RB 108 includesNSY×NSC Res, or 14×12 in the illustrated examples. An RB is the smallestunit that can be scheduled for transmission.

A portion of a subframe 200 is shown in FIG. 2. Each REG 205 included inthe PDCCH includes 4 consecutive REs (or 4 REs separated by acell-specific reference signal (“RS”) 210) within the same OFDM symboland the same resource block. In FIG. 2 there are two (2) REGs in theOFDM symbol 0, the first slot of the subframe 200, and there are 3 REGsin OFDM symbols 1, 2 and 3. Each CCE includes 9 REGs, which aredistributed across OFDM symbols 0, 1, 2, and optionally 4, and thesystem bandwidth through interleaving to enable diversity and tomitigate interference.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a PDCCH map 300. Each PDCCH(numbered as #1, #2, #3 and #4) in the map 300 is formed from a numberof CCEs, individually numbered using the CCE Index in FIG. 3. Each CCEincludes nine (9) REGs, as shown in the enlarged view of CCE8. The REGsare distributed over the first three OFDM symbols in the illustrativeexample shown in FIG. 3, and each REG is formed from four logicallycontinuous Res in the same symbol.

The number of CCEs in a PDCCH is called its aggregation level, and maybe 1, 2, 4, or 8 consecutive CCEs (logically sequential). The totalnumber of available CCEs is determined by the PCFICH configuration andthe system bandwidth. Each PDCCH contains exactly one Downlink ControlInformation (“DCI”). For the illustrative example shown in FIG. 3, PDCCH#0 has an aggregation level of 1, including just CCE 0. PDCCH #1 has anaggregation level of 2, including CCE2 and CCE3. PDCCH #2 has anaggregation level of 4, including CCE4, CCE5, CCE6 and CCE7. And PDCCH#3 has an aggregation level of 8, including CCE8, CCE9, CCE10, CCE11,CCE12, CCE13, CCE14 and CCE15. A PDCCH with aggregation level n canoptionally be restricted to starting only on a CCE having an index valuethat is a positive integer multiple of n. For example, a PDCCH with anaggregation level of 4 can only start on CCE index 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.

The historical difficulty of interleaving PDCCHs having differentaggregation levels is demonstrated with reference to FIG. 4. In aCORESET for the PDCCH of aggregation level 4 (“AL4”), the REG bundletype 1 as the base resource unit for interleaving is comprised of 6REGs, which corresponds to a CCE. For the PDCCH of aggregation level 2(“AL2”), the REG bundle type 2 as the base resource unit forinterleaving is comprised of 2 REGs, a CCE being formed by three (3) ofthe REG bundles of type 2. The interleaving process for the two downlinkcontrol channels is performed in FIG. 4. The interleaving technique isbased on the interleaving technique of PDCCH in LTE. As can be seen fromFIG. 4, after the interleaving AL2's candidate 0 is overlapped withAL4's candidate 0 and candidate 1. Therefore, when a UE's NR-PDCCHlocation is at candidate 0, both candidate 0 and candidate 1 of AL4cannot be used for transmission of other NR-PDCCHs. Thus, the NR-PDCCHof AL4 is said to be blocked, or, the block ratio increased, a conditionthat is not favorable for channel estimation reuse. For example, if aUE's search space is comprised of candidate 0 of AL4 and candidate 0 ofAL4, the channel estimation of candidate 0 of AL2 can not get onlythrough the channel estimation reusing of the candidate 0 of AL4.

On the other hand, it is worth pointing out in FIG. 4 that if the searchspace of a UE is composed of AL4's candidate 0 and AL2's candidate 0,since the corresponding resources of AL2's candidate 0 does not fullyencompass the entire resource range of AL4's candidate 0. In otherwords, AL4's candidate 0 is much “taller” than AL2's candidate 0, soAL2's candidate 0 does not fully block AL4's candidate 0.

In view of the above difficulties, the following description of how toimplement the coexistence of REG bundles of different sizes in the sameresource area (CORESET) is provided with reference to variousembodiments, and can support DMRS reuse between candidates of differentaggregation levels, resulting in a decrease in the blocking probabilityof the NR-PDCCH.

It is to be noted that the REG bundle index in the examples that followcan also be understood as an NR-PDCCH symbol stream (or NR-PDCCH dataflow) index, and the order of the logical REG bundle index is themapping order of the NR-PDCCH symbol stream. Further, the number ofmodulation symbols included in the NR-PDCCH symbol stream correspondingto one symbol stream index can be equal to the number of REs that can beused to transmit the NR-PDCCH symbol stream contained in a REG bundle.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be arbitrarily combined.For example, when the ratio of the REG bundle size of the relativelylarge aggregation level and the REG bundle size of the relatively smallaggregation level is 2, using the method described in the followingExample 1, when the large aggregation level REG bundle and the smallaggregation level REG bundle is 3, the method described in the followingExample 2 can used, and so on.

The use of “relatively large” or “large” herein is to be understoodrelative to the corresponding “relatively small” or “small” value usedin the same example. For instance, a “relatively high aggregation level”must be greater than a certain threshold, such as the “relatively lowaggregation level” used in the same example. Likewise, a “highaggregation level” is simply required to be greater than the “lowaggregation level” described in the same example.

The “REGs have the same precoder” as described in the examples of thepresent disclosure means that the channels for these REGs are continuousor the UE can perform joint channel estimation on these REGs.

Example 1

For the present example, a REG bundle with bundle size of 6 (one REGbundle including 6 REGs) coexists with a REG bundle with bundle sizes of3 (one REG bundle including 3 REGs) and 2 (one REG bundle including 2REGs). The present example will be described with reference to FIGS. 5and 6.

Different resource ranges are for different REG bundle sizes forinterleaving, different REG bundle sizes correspond to differentaggregation levels. The larger REG bundle 500 has a resource range ofthe entire CORESET for interleaving. The smaller REG bundle 505 has aresource range of the resource corresponding to the candidates of the UEin the larger REG bundle (row referred to at 500). In this way, it ispossible to ensure that the low aggregation level candidates(cross-hatched members of row 510) of the UE are within the resourcerange of the high aggregation level candidates (cross-hatched members ofrow 515). As a result, the low aggregation level candidates 510 canreuse the channel estimation result of the high aggregation levelcandidates 515 and effectively avoid that more than one candidates ofhigh AL 515 being blocked by one candidate of low aggregation level.

As shown in FIG. 5, the interleaving of the NR-PDCCH can optionally beachieved by two levels of interleaving: (i) the first level ofinterleaving 520 being based on the first level of REG bundle (largerREG bundle 500) within the first resource range, and (ii) the secondlevel of interleaving 525 within the second resource range based on thesecond level of REG bundle (smaller REG bundle 505). Wherein the firstresource range for the larger REG bundle 500 can optionally be theentire CORESET and the second resource range for the smaller REG bundle505 can be the resource of one or more of the candidates 510 of the UEcorresponding to the first level of REG bundle.

In FIG. 5, assume a CORESET with a total of 16 CCE, and two types of REGbundles, respectively: the first level (larger) REG bundle 500 and thesecond level (smaller) REG bundle 505, where the first level REG bundlesize is 6 REGs, and the second level REG bundle size is 3 REGs. Thefirst level REG bundle 500 can be used for interleaving for NR-PDCCH ofhigh aggregation level. The second level REG bundle 505 can be used forinterleaving for NR-PDCCH of low aggregation level.

The process depicted in FIG. 5 involves a first level of interleaving520. The larger REG bundle 500 in the order (such as CORESET frequencydomain from low to high order) indicated by the first level REG bundlephysical index 530. An example of the interleaving can involve asubblock interleaving. The result of the first level of interleaving isthe reorganized resources of the larger REG bundle 500 into the orderindicated by a first level REG bundle logical index 535. A first levelCCE index 540 reflects the first level REG bundle logical index 535 herebecause a larger REG bundle 500 and the CCE are of the same size.Accordingly, a REG bundle is a CCE, so the CCE index 540 and the REGbundle index 535 are the same.

After the first level interleaving 520, the UE determines the resourcerange of candidates of high aggregation level for it. For example, theresource range of candidates of the high aggregation level determined inFIG. 5 is eight first-level CCEs with the first level CCE0 as thestarting position of the high aggregation level, which corresponds tocandidate 0 of high AL (AL8).

Within the resource range of high aggregation level determined above,the smaller REG bundle 505 is numbered in a defined order (for example,in the order of the frequency domain in the resource range of the highaggregation level determined above, from low to high). This ordering isreferred to as the second-level REG bundle physical index 545. Thesecond-level REG bundle 505 is then subjected to interleaving, resultingin the interleaved order corresponding to the second level REG bundlelogical index 550. The formation of the second level CCE index 555 basedon the second REG bundle having a size of three REGs, so every twoconsecutive logical second level REG bundles form a CCE. However, someembodiments can utilize a second REG bundle size that results in a CCEformed from more than two consecutive logical second level REG bundles.

For example, in FIG. 6, the first level of interleaving 520 is performedas described above with reference to FIG. 5. But, in FIG. 6, formationof the second level CCE index is based on a second REG bundle 605 havinga size of two REGs, instead of three REGs as shown in FIG. 5. Thus,every three consecutive logical second level REG bundles forms a CCE inFIG. 6.

It can be seen from FIGS. 5 and 6 that all the candidates (cross hatchedmembers of the row 510, 610) of the low aggregation level obtained bythe above-mentioned method are located within the range of candidates515 of the high aggregation level. Further, any one of the candidates610 of low aggregation level can be located under the resource of amaximum of (e.g., centrally aligned with) one of the candidates 515 ofhigh aggregation level. The low level aggregation level candidates 510,610 can support a smaller-sized REG bundle than the high aggregationlevel candidates, which improves flexibility of the resource granularityof a precoder used for directional beamforming.

For all or at least some of the embodiments discussed herein, it is tobe noted that the interleaving techniques in the embodiments of thepresent disclosure may be any existing or developing interleavingtechniques. The interleaving techniques may be the same, or differentfrom those used by LTE system, and the size of the column permutingpattern can optionally utilize a value of permuting addresses other than32.

Further, prior to the first level of interleaving 520 or the secondlevel of interleaving 525 in embodiments of the present disclosure, theREG bundles to be interleaved can be divided into N groups (N is aninteger greater than 1), and then interleaving the groups. If i is aninteger greater than or equal to 1, but less than N, the divided REGbundle i would contain the REG bundles whose index modulo to N is equalto i−1. The REG bundles within the group can optionally not beinterleaved.

Example 2

For Example 2, REG bundle with bundle size of 6 coexists with REG bundlewith bundle sizes of 3 and 2. The present example will be described withreference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

Different resource ranges are for different REG bundle sizes forinterleaving, different REG bundle sizes correspond to differentaggregation levels. The larger REG bundle 700 has are source range ofthe entire CORESET for interleaving. The smaller REG bundle 705 has aresource rage of the resource corresponding to the candidates of the UEin the larger REG bundle 700. In this way, it is possible to ensure thatall, or at least one or a plurality of the small aggregation levelcandidates (cross hatched members of row 710) of the UE is/are withinthe resource range of the large aggregation level candidates (crosshatched members of row 715). Thus, the small aggregation levelcandidates 710 can reuse the channel estimation result of the largeaggregation level candidates 715, and effectively avoid that more thanone candidates of high AL 715 being blocked by one candidate of lowaggregation level.

As shown in FIG. 7, the interleaving of the NR-PDCCH may be achieved bytwo-level interleaving: (i) the first level interleaving 720 being basedon the first level (larger) REG bundle 700 within the first resourcerange, and (ii) the second level interleaving 725 within the secondresource range based on the second level (smaller) REG bundle 705.Optionally, the first level resource range can be the entire CORESET,and the second level resource range can be the resource range from whichone or more of the candidates 710 of the UE corresponding to the firstlevel of REG bundle are derived. Optionally, there are a plurality ofsecond level resource ranges, where each of the second level resourceranges corresponds to the resource of one of the candidates of firstlevel REG bundles.

In FIG. 7, it is assumed that the CORESET includes a total of 16 CCE,and there are two REG bundles, respectively: (i) the first level(larger) REG bundle 700 and the second level (smaller) REG bundle 705.The first level REG bundle size is 6 REGs, and the second level REGbundle size is 3 REGs. The first level REG bundle 700 can be used forinterleaving for NR-PDCCH of high aggregation level. The second levelREG bundle 705 can be used for interleaving for NR-PDCCH of lowaggregation level.

As depicted in FIG. 7, the first level of interleaving 720 interleavesthe first REG bundle 700 in an order (such as CORESET frequency domainfrom low to high order) indicated by the first level REG bundle physicalindex 730 to obtain the first level REG bundle logical index 735. Afirst level CCE index 740 reflects the first level REG bundle logicalindex 735 here because the larger REG bundle 700 and a CCE are the samesize, so the REG bundle 700 is a CCE and, accordingly, the CCE index 740and REG bundle index 735 are the same.

After the first level interleaving 720, the UE determines the resourcerange of candidates 715 of high aggregation level. For example, theresource range of candidates 715 of high aggregation level determined inFIG. 7 that there are eight first-level CCEs with the first level CCE0as the starting position of the high aggregation level (corresponding tocandidate 0 and candidate 1 of high AL i.e. AL4).

Within the resource range of the high aggregation level determined, thesmaller REG bundle 705 will be ordered (for example, in the order of thefrequency domain in the resource range of the high aggregation leveldetermined above, from low to high) to form a second-level REG bundlephysical index 745. The second-level REG bundles with the second-levelREG bundle physical index 745 corresponding to each of the identifiedcandidates 715 of high AL are interleaved in the resource ofcorresponding candidate. As shown in FIG. 7, the second level REG bundlephysical index 745 values between 0 and 7, inclusive, are interleavedand the second level REGs with physical index values of 8 to 15,inclusive, are also interleaved, optionally separate from the secondlevel REGs with REG bundle physical index 745 values between 0 and 7.The logical index 750 of the second-level REG bundle is obtained, andthe second-level CCE index 755 is formed in the order of the logicalindex 750 of the second-level REG bundle. The pattern in FIG. 7, is thatthe even-valued REG bundle index values 750 are halved to define thesecond level CCE index values. The odd-valued REG bundle index values750 are also halved and rounded down to the nearest integer to definethe second level CCE index values. Since the size of a second REG bundle705 is three REGs, each two logically continuous second level REGbundles forms a CCE.

For embodiments such as those shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that thereis CORESET with a total of 16 CCE, and two REG bundles, respectively:(i) the first level (larger) REG bundle 800, and (ii) the second level(smaller) REG bundle 805. The first level REG bundle 800 size is 6 REGs,and the second level REG bundle 805 size is 2 REGs. The first level REGbundle 800 can be used for interleaving for NR-PDCCH of high aggregationlevel. The second level REG bundle 805 is used for interleaving forNR-PDCCH of low aggregation level.

For such embodiments, the first level of interleaving 720 is performedas described above with reference to FIG. 5, to obtain the larger REGbundle logical index 835. In accordance with the order of the larger REGbundle logical index 835, the order of the first level CCE index 840 isgenerated to match the order of the larger REG bundle logical index 835because a first level REG bundle and a CCE are of the same size. Thus, aREG bundle amounts to a CCE in the present example.

After the first level interleaving 720, the UE determines the resourcerange of candidates 815 of high aggregation level. For example, theresource range of candidates 515 for the high aggregation leveldetermined in FIG. 5 was eight first-level CCEs, with the first levelCCE0 as the starting position of high aggregation level candidates 515corresponding to candidate 0 of ALB. But in FIG. 8, there are eightfirst-level CCEs with the first level CCE0 as the starting position ofthe high aggregation level candidates 815 corresponding to candidate 0and candidate 1 of AL4.

Within the resource range of the high aggregation level determinedabove, the smaller REG bundle 805 is arranged in a defined order (forexample, within the frequency domain of the high aggregation level, fromthe low to high) to form a second-level REG bundle physical index 845.According to the second-level REG bundle physical index 845, indexvalues 0-11, inclusive, correspond to the high aggregation levelcandidates 815 with index value 860 “0”, as identified above. Accordingto the second-level REG bundle physical index 845, index values 12-23,inclusive, correspond to the high aggregation level candidates 815 withand index value 860 of “1”, as identified above. The second-level REGbundle 805 is subjected to the second level of interleaving 725 toobtain the logical index values 850 for the smaller REG bundle 805.Formation of the second level CCE index 855 is based on the smaller REGbundle 805 having a size of two REGs, so every three logicallyconsecutive second-level REG bundles form a CCE in FIG. 8.

It can be seen from FIGS. 7 and 8 that all the candidates 710, 810 oflow aggregation level obtained by the above procedure are located withinthe range of the candidates 715, 815 of the high aggregation level.Further, any one of the candidates 710, 810 of low aggregation levelsare located at a maximum of (e.g., approximately centrally aligned with)one candidate 715, 815 in the resources of the high aggregation level.The low level aggregation level candidates 710, 810 can support asmaller-sized REG bundle than the high aggregation level candidates 715,815, which improves the resource granularity of a precoder used fordirectional beamforming.

Example 3

For Example 3, REG bundle with bundle size 6 coexists with REG bundlewith bundle sizes 3 and 2. The present example will be described withreference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

Different REG bundle sizes are for different aggregation levels, and indifferent resource range for interleaving optionally. A larger REGbundle 900 can have are source range of the entire CORESET forinterleaving, and a small REG bundle 905 can have a resource range whichincludes the resources of one or more of the candidates of the UEcorresponding to the larger REG bundle 900. In this way, it is possibleto ensure that the small aggregation level candidates (cross-hatchedmembers of row 910) of the UE are within the resource range of the largeaggregation level candidates (cross-hatched members of row 915). As aresult, the small aggregation level candidates 910 can reuse the channelestimation result of the large aggregation level candidates 915 andeffectively avoid that more than one high AL candidates corresponding tolarge REG bundle size being blocked by only one low AL candidatecorresponding to small REG bundle size.

As shown in FIG. 9, the distributed NR-PDCCH may be achieved bytwo-level interleaving: (i) the first level interleaving 920 being basedon the first level REG bundle (larger REG bundle 900) within the firstresource range, and (ii) the second level interleaving 925 within thesecond resource range based on the second level REG bundle (smaller REGbundle 905). Wherein the larger REG bundle 900 can optionally be theentire CORESET and the smaller REG bundle 905 can be the resource rangefrom which one or more of the high AL candidates 910 of the UEcorresponding to larger REG bundle are derived. Optionally, for secondlevel interleaving, different interleaving schemes are used depending ondifferent ratio of the first level REG bundle size and the second levelREG bundle size. And further optionally, the different interleavingscheme means any one or more steps included in the process of thesub-block interleaving used in LTE, such as different column-permutedpattern (also called interleaving pattern) are used.

In FIG. 9, assume a CORESET with a total of 16 CCE, and two REG bundles,respectively: the first level (larger) REG bundle 900 and the secondlevel (smaller) REG bundle 905. The first level REG bundle size is 6REGs, and the second level REG bundle size is 3 REGs. The first levelREG bundle 900 can be used for interleaving of NR-PDCCH with a highaggregation level. The second level REG bundle 905 can be used forinterleaving of NR-PDCCH with a low aggregation level.

The process depicted in FIG. 9 involves a first level of interleaving920, where the larger REG bundle 900 in the order (such as CORESETfrequency domain from low to high order) indicated by the first levelREG bundle physical index 930, for example. An example of theinterleaving can involve sub-block interleaving based on a definedinterleaving matrix. The result of the first level of interleaving isthe reorganized resources of the larger REG bundle 900 into the orderindicated by a first level REG bundle logical index 935. A first levelCCE index 940 reflects the first level REG bundle logical index 935 herebecause the larger REG bundle 900 and the CCE are of the same size.Accordingly, a REG bundle is a CCE, so the CCE index 940 and the REGbundle index 935 are the same.

After the first level interleaving 920, the UE determines the range ofcandidates (cross hatched members of the row 915) for the highaggregation level. For example, the range of candidates for the highaggregation level determined in FIG. 5 is eight first-level CCEs withthe first level CCE0 as the starting position of the high aggregationlevel corresponding to candidate 0 of ALB. But in FIG. 9, there are alsoeight first-level CCEs with the first level CCE0 as the startingposition of the high aggregation level candidates 915 but correspondingcandidate 0 and candidate 1 of AL4.

Within the resource range of the high aggregation level determinedabove, the smaller REG bundle 905 is numbered in a defined order (forexample, in the order of the frequency domain in the resource range ofthe high aggregation level determined above, from low to high). Thisordering is referred to as the second-level REG bundle physical index945. The second-level REG bundle physical index 945 is then subjected tothe second level interleaving 925, resulting in the interleaved ordercorresponding to the second level REG bundle logical index 950. Theformation of the second level CCE index 955 is based on the second REGbundle 905 having a size of three REGs, so every two logicallyconsecutive second level REG bundles (which means two second level REGbundles with continuous second level REG bundle logical index)collectively form a CCE. However, some embodiments can utilize a secondREG bundle size that results in a CCE formed from more than twologically consecutive second level REG bundles.

For example, in FIG. 10, it is assumed that there is CORESET with atotal of 16 CCE, and two REG bundles, respectively: (i) the first level(larger) REG bundle 1000, and (ii) the second level (smaller) REG bundle1005. The first level REG bundle 1000 size is 6 REGs, and the secondlevel REG bundle size is 2 REGs. The first level REG bundle 1000 can beused for interleaving of NR-PDCCH with high aggregation level. Thesecond level REG bundle 1005 can be used for interleaving of NR-PDCCHwith low aggregation level.

For such embodiments, the first level of interleaving 920 is performedas described above with reference to FIG. 9, to obtain the larger REGbundle logical index 1035. In accordance with the order of the largerREG bundle logical index 1035, the order of the first level CCE index1040 is generated to match the order of the larger REG bundle logicalindex 1035 because a first level REG bundle and a CCE are of the samesize. Thus, a REG bundle amounts to a CCE in the present example.

After the first level interleaving 920, the UE determines the resourcerange of candidates 1015 of high aggregation level. For example, theresource range of high AL candidates 515 determined in FIG. 5 was eightfirst-level CCEs, with the first level CCE0 as the starting position ofhigh aggregation level candidates 515 corresponding to candidate 0 of AL8. Likewise, in FIG. 10, there are also eight first-level CCEs with thefirst level CCE0 as the starting position of the high aggregation levelcandidates 1015 corresponding to candidate 0 of AL8.

Within the resource range of the high aggregation level determinedabove, the smaller REG bundle 1005 is arranged in a defined order (forexample, within the frequency domain of the high aggregation level, fromthe low to high) to form a second-level REG bundle physical index 1045.The second-level REG bundle 1005 is subjected to a second levelinterleave 1025 that uses a different interleaving scheme than that usedfor the first level interleave 920. For example, the second levelinterleaving 1025 can utilize a column-permuted pattern (also calledinterleaving pattern) such <1, 11, 17, 13, 13, 20, 5, 8, 23, 0, 12, 19,6, 16, 21, 2, 10, 14, 4, 15, 22> which is different with thecolumn-permuted pattern used for the first level interleaving, resultingin a logical index 1050 of the second-level REG bundle. The second-levelCCE index 1055 is formed according to the logical index 1050 of thesecond-level REG bundle. Since the size of a second REG bundle is 2REGs, every three logically consecutive second-level REG bundles form aCCE.

It can be seen from FIGS. 9 and 10 that all the candidates (crosshatched members of the row 910, 1010) of the low aggregation levelcorresponding to larger REG bundle obtained by the above-mentionedmethod are located within the range of candidates 915, 1015 of the highaggregation level corresponding to small REG bundle. Further, any one ofthe candidates 910, 1010 of the low aggregation level corresponding tosmall REG bundle can be located at a maximum of (e.g., substantiallycentrally aligned with) one of the candidates 915, 1015 of the highaggregation level corresponding to larger REG bundle. The low levelaggregation level candidates 910, 1010 can support a smaller-sized REGbundle than the high aggregation level candidates, which improves theresource granularity of a precoder used for directional beamforming.

Example 4

For Example 4, the REG bundle with bundle size 6 coexists with the REGwith bundle size 2. The present example will be described with referenceto FIGS. 11 and 12.

Different REG bundle to CCE mappings (REG bundle to CCE mapping alsocalled CCE indexing) are defined for different REG bundle sizes, and thedifferent REG bundle sizes correspond to different aggregation levels,such as large REG bundle sizes corresponding to high aggregation levels,and small REG bundle sizes corresponding to a low aggregation level. Inthe present example, a CCE indexing establishes a mapping (or mappingpattern) between the REG bundle logical index and the CCE index. Forsmall REG bundle, the CCE mapping results that all the small REG bundleswithin any one of the low AL candidates corresponding to small REGbundle is located in the same one high AL candidate corresponding tolarge REG bundle.

For the embodiments in FIG. 11, it is assumed that there is a CORESETwith a total of 16 CCEs, and two type of REG bundles, respectively: (i)an inter REG bundle 1100, which includes a size of 6 REGs, and (ii) aninner REG bundle 1105, which includes a size of 3 REGs. The inter REGbundle can be used to define CCE indexes for high aggregation levels.The inner REG bundle can be used to define CCE indexes for lowaggregation levels.

For some embodiments, the inter REG bundle 1100, as a basic resourceunit, can have a resource range of the entire CORESET for interleaving,the inter REG bundle is arranged in a defined order (for example, withinthe frequency domain of the high aggregation level, from the low tohigh) to form an inter REG bundle physical index. And by implyinginterleaving these inter REG bundle physical index, the interleavedinter REG bundle physical index is indicated as an inter REG bundlelogical index. The Inner REG bundle 1105 of a UE is defined under theresources corresponding to the candidates selected for the UE within asubset of the Inter REG bundle 1100.

CCE indexing 1140 for high AL corresponding to the inter REG bundles isdefined based on the inter REG bundle logical index 1130 to create theaccordingly order of the CCE index with the inter REG bundle logicalindex. The inter REG bundles can be mapped to the CCEs by assuming thata CCE contains M inter REG bundles 1100, every M logically consecutiveinter REG bundles (that is, the logical index 1135 is continuous for Minter REG bundles 1100) to form a CCE. The inter REG bundle index 1135is arranged from low to high corresponding to the CCE index 1140 fromlow to high. The value of M is the ratio of inter (larger) REG bundlesize to inner(small) REG bundle size. Here because the inter REG bundlesize is 6 REGs, and a CCE also contains six REGs, the value of M is 1,so a CCE amounts to an inter REG bundle 1100.

Each inter REG bundle 1100 can be split into N inner REG bundles 1105conducted according to the logical index order of the inter REG bundle1100. Thus, the N inner REG bundles collectively form a compositeresource bundle that was split. N can be equal to the ratio of the interREG bundle size to the inner REG bundle size, which is 6/3, or 2 in thepresent example. The logical index 1150 of the inner REG bundle 1105from low to high corresponds to the logical index of the inter REGbundle from low to high. When the inter REG bundle size is 6 REGs andthe inner REG bundle size is 3 REGs, the value of N is 2, and thelogical index of the two inner REG bundles 1105 corresponding to theinter REG bundle 1100 of i is given by the formula 2*i and 2*i+1. Inother words, for the first logical Inter REG bundle index value of i=1in FIG. 11, the values of the two logic Inner REG bundle index valuesformed by splitting the resource corresponding to the Inter REG bundleindex value of i=1 into two separate resources are: 2*1=1, and 2*1+1=3.These first two logical inner REG bundle index values are reflected inFIG. 11. As another example, for the second logical Inter REG bundleindex value of i=9, the two corresponding logical inner REG bundle indexvalues are 2*9=18, and 2*9+1=19, as shown in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 shows a technique for defining a CCE index 1155 for low AL basedon the logical inner REG bundle index 1150 in accordance in a predefinedmanner. When the inter REG bundle size is 6 REGs and the inner REGbundle size is 3 REGs, the present technique defines the CCE index forthe low aggregation level as follows:

1) For inner REG bundles having even inner REG bundle index values, theeven inner REG bundle index values are considered in ascending order asshown in FIG. 12. The inner REG bundle index can be divided into twogroups with even and odd index respectively, and with the CCE indexingorder as the first index order of the two groups which means the CCEindexing first in the first group containing even inner REG bundle indexand then continue indexing in the second group containing odd inner REGbundle index. Take an example of the first group containing even innerREG bundle index. The even inner REG bundle index values are grouped inpairs, and every two logically consecutive inner REG bundles are groupto one CCE. Take the CCE indexing increasing as the increasing of theinner REG bundle logical index increasing, and begin with the CCE indexvalue of “0” for the first pair. For the example shown in FIG. 12, thefirst pair of even inner REG bundle index values includes “0” and “2”.Being in the first pair, these even inner REG bundle index values areassigned CCE index value “0”. Similarly, the second pair of even innerREG bundle index values includes “4” and “6”. Each of these even innerREG bundle index values is assigned the CCE index value of “1”, and soon. Generally, if N represents the numerical location of a pair of eveninner REG bundle index values in the range of even inner REG bundleindex value pairings, then the CCE index value assigned to eachconstituent in the Nth pair is given by N−1. Using the even inner REGbundle index values “4” and “6” again as an example, those even innerREG bundle index values form the second pair of values in FIG. 12, soN=2. Thus, those even inner REG bundle index values are assigned a CCEindex value given by: N−1, or 2−1=1. Similarly, even inner REG bundleindex values “16” and “18” are constituents of the 5th pair of eveninner REG bundle index values, so N=5. Thus, even inner REG bundle indexvalues “16” and “18” are assigned CCE index values of “4” (5−1) in FIG.12. If there are P1 CCEs (or pairs of even inner REG bundle indexvalues) within the range of even inner REG bundle index values, therange of CCE index values will be from 0 to P1−1.

2) To map the odd inner REG bundle index values to CCE index values forthe low aggregation level, the odd inner REG bundle index values areagain considered in ascending order as shown in FIG. 12, and anincrementally-increasing CCE index value is assigned to each constituentin a pair. However, CCE index value assigned to the first pair of oddinner REG bundle index values is one increment greater than the greatestCCE index value assigned to an even inner REG bundle index value.Referring once again to FIG. 12, the odd inner REG bundle index values“1” and “3” are the first pair of odd inner REG bundle index values.Rather than assigning each constituent in that pair a CCE index value of“0” however, the CCE index value of “8” is assigned to the odd inner REGbundle index values “1” and “3”, which is one greater than the greatestCCE index value (“7”) assigned to an even inner REG bundle index value.Thus, the range of CCE index values for the odd inner REG bundle indexvalues will be from P1 to (P1+P2−1), where P2 is the number of CCE indexvalues assigned to pairs of odd inner REG bundle index values.

The result of the CCE mapping can be seen in FIG. 11. Any candidate 1110of the low aggregation level contains the inner REG bundles 1105 locatedin the same candidate 1115 resources of the high aggregation level. As aresult, this approach implements the coexistence of multiple REG bundlesin the same CORESET, while reducing the blocking probability of thecandidates of different AL corresponding to different REG bundle size.

Example 5

For Example 5, the REG bundle with bundle size 6 coexists with the REGbundle with bundle sizes 3 and 2. The present example will be describedwith reference to FIGS. 13 and 14.

Different REG bundle to CCE mappings (REG bundle to CCE mapping alsocalled CCE indexing) are defined for different REG bundle sizes and thedifferent REG bundle sizes corresponding to different aggregationlevels. For example, a large REG bundle size corresponds to a highaggregation level, and a small REG bundle size corresponds to a lowaggregation level in the present example. Here the CCE indexingestablishes a mapping (or mapping pattern) from the REG bundle logicalindex to the CCE index. For small REG bundle, the CCE mapping resultsthat all the small REG bundles within any one of the low AL candidatescorresponding to small REG bundle is located in the same one high ALcandidate corresponding to large REG bundle.

In FIG. 13, it is assumed that a CORESET is provided with a total of 16CCE, and there are two types of REG bundles, respectively (i) an InterREG bundle 1300, with a bundle size of 6 REGs, and (ii) an Inner REGbundle 1305, with a bundle size of two REGs. The Inter REG bundle 1300can be used to define the CCE index 1340 for high aggregation levels,and the Inner REG bundle 1305 can be used to define CCE indexes 1355 forlow aggregation levels.

The technique shown in FIG. 13 involves interleaving 1320 the inter REGbundle 1300 as the basic resource unit with the physical inter REGbundle index in the entire CORESET, to generate the resourcescorresponding to the logical REG bundle index 1335. Based on the logicalinter REG bundle index 1335, the CCE index values 1340 for high ALs canbe defined according to a predefined process. The inter REG bundle canbe mapped to the CCEs as is known in the art, by assuming that a CCEcontains M inter REG bundles 1300, each of the M logically consecutiveinter REG bundles (that is, the logical index is continuous over M interREG bundles 1300) to form a CCE. The inter REG bundle index 1335 isconfigured from low to high corresponding to the CCE index 1340 from lowto high. Because the inter REG bundle size is 6 REGs, and a CCE alsocontains 6 REGs, M has a value of 1, so a CCE amounts to an inter REGbundle in the present example.

Each inter REG bundle 1300 is split into N inner REG bundles accordingto the logical index order of the inter REG bundles 1300, where N isequal to the ratio of the inter REG bundle size and the inner REG bundlesize. The logical inner REG bundle index 1350 in ascending order, fromlow to high corresponds to the logical inter REG bundle index 1335 inascending order, from low to high. When the inter REG bundle size is 6REGs and the inner REG bundle size is 2 REGs, the value of N is 3, andthe logical index values of the three inner REG bundles corresponding tothe inter REG bundle index value of i is 3*i, 3*i+1 and 3*i+2. Forexample, for the second logical Inter REG bundle index value of i=9, thethree corresponding logical inner REG bundle index values are 3*9=27,2*9+1=28, and 2*9+2=29, as shown in FIG. 13.

Based on the inner REG bundle index in accordance with the technique fordefining a CCE index for the low aggregation level(s) corresponding tothe inner REG bundles, FIG. 14 shows a predefined mapping method betweenthe inner REG bundle index 1350 and the CCE index 1355 for lowaggregation level(s). In particular, the method involves:

1) Divide all inner REG bundles into groups with W inner REG bundle ineach group, and the group index increasing accordingly with the order ofthe first index REG bundle index in each group. CCE indexing is donewith group index increasing direction across all the inner REG bundles.The W inner REG bundle can optionally be the inner REG bundlecorresponding to the resources of one candidate of high aggregationlevel corresponding to inter REG bundle.

2) Take an example of the first group, and then between groups, the CCEindex is determined in accordance with the same pattern to achieve theinner REG bundle index to the CCE index mapping. For example, when theratio of the REG bundle size of the large aggregation level and the REGbundle size of the small aggregation level is 3, each group contains N*L(L is the aggregation level) Inner REG bundles. Assuming the aggregationlevel is 4, then each group contains a logical 12 (N is 3 and L is 4)consecutive inner REG bundles. The logical index of the inner REGbundles included in the nth (n is a nonnegative integer) group is givenby <12*n, 12*n+1, . . . , 12*n+11>, and selecting every third value (asthe value of N), beginning with value “0” for group n=0 as the sortedinner REG bundle index values. and the sorted inner REG bundle indexesare given by 12n+3m+1 (m=0, 1, 2, 3), 12n+3m+2 (m=0, 1, 2, 3), and everyN REG bundles form a CCE based on the sorted inner REG bundle indexes.

3) Since N=3 in the present example, each constituent in a group ofthree inner REG bundle index values is assigned an incrementallyincreasing CCE index value, that increases one increment for each group,as shown in FIG. 14.

As another example explained with respect to FIG. 15, assume a CORESETincludes a total of 16 CCE, and there are two REG bundle, respectively:(i) Inter REG bundle having a size of 6 REGs, and (ii) Inner REG bundle,having a size of 3 REGs. The Inter REG bundle can be used to define CCEindexes for high aggregation levels. The Inner REG bundle can be used todefine CCE index values for low aggregation levels.

The Inter REG bundle has an interleaved resource range of the entireCORESET. After the physical resources corresponding to the inter REGbundle logical index 1535, the inter REG bundle index order, inaccordance with a predefined technique, is used to define a CCE index1540 for high ALs. The inter REG bundle to CCE is mapped in aconventional manner, by assuming that a CCE contains M inter REGbundles, every M logically consecutive inter REG bundles (that is, thelogical index is continuous M inter REG bundles) forms a CCE, based onthe inter REG bundle index from low to high corresponding to the CCEindex from low to high. Here because the inter REG bundle size for the 6REGs, a CCE also contains six REGs, M value of 1, so a CCE amounts to aninter REG bundle.

Each inter REG bundle 1500 is split into N inner REG bundles accordingto the logical order of the inter REG bundle index 1530, where N isequal to the ratio of the inter REG bundle size and the inner REG bundlesize. And the logical inner REG bundle index 1550, from low to highcorresponds to the logical inter REG bundle index 1535, from low tohigh. When the inter REG bundle size is 6 REGs and the inner REG bundlesize is 3 REGs, the value of N is 2, and the logical index of the twoinner REG bundles corresponding to the inter REG bundle of i is 2*i, and2*i+1.

Based on the inner REG bundle index 1550 in accordance with a predefinedprocess to define a CCE index 1555 for low ALs. FIG. 16 shows themapping between the inner REG bundle index 1550 and the CCE index 1550for the low aggregation level, that is, the predefined process involvesthe following:

1) Divide all inner REG bundles into groups with W inner REG bundle ineach group, and the group index increasing accordingly with the order ofthe first index REG bundle index in each group. CCE indexing is donewith group index increasing direction across all the inner REG bundles.The W inner REG bundle can optionally be the inner REG bundlecorresponding to the resources of one candidate of high aggregationlevel corresponding to inter REG bundle.

2) Take an example of the first group, and then between groups, the CCEindex is determined in accordance with the same pattern to achieve theinner REG bundle index to the CCE index mapping. For example, when theratio of the REG bundle size of the high aggregation level and the REGbundle size of the low aggregation level is 2, each group contains N*L(L is the aggregation level). If the aggregation level is 4, containseight consecutive inner REG bundles that are logically consecutive, andthe logical index of the inner REG bundles included in the nth (n is anonnegative integer) group is <8*n, 8*n+1, . . . , 8*n+7>. The logicalindexes of the inner REG bundles are sorted in the order of 8n+2m (m=0,1, 2, 3), 8n+2m+1 (m=0, 1, 2, 3), and every N inner REG bundles to forma CCE after sorting.

3) The CCE index included in the nth group inner REG bundle is definedas L*n˜L*n+W−1 according to the CCE or candidate index order of the highaggregation level, where L is the high aggregation level.

As can be seen from FIGS. 15 and 16, the inner REG bundles contained inany one of the low aggregation levels are within the same candidate'sresources of the high aggregation level. As a result, this approachimplements the coexistence of multiple REG bundles in the same CORESET,while reducing the blocking probability of the candidates of differentAL corresponding to different REG bundle size.

FIG. 17 presents a schematic architecture diagram 1700 of a base station1750 (e.g., a network entity) that may utilize at least a portion of thetechniques provided herein. Such a base station 1750 may vary widely inconfiguration and/or capabilities, alone or in conjunction with otherbase stations, nodes, end units and/or servers, etc. in order to providea service, such as at least some of one or more of the other disclosedtechniques, scenarios, etc. For example, the base station 1750 mayconnect one or more user equipment (UE) to a (e.g., wireless and/orwired) network (e.g., which may be connected and/or include one or moreother base stations), such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA)networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The network mayimplement a radio technology, such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access(UTRA), CDMA2000, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), EvolvedUTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM, etc.The BS and/or the UE may communicate using a standard, such as Long-TermEvolution (LTE), 5G New Radio (NR), etc.

The base station 1750 may comprise one or more (e.g., hardware)processors 1710 that process instructions. The one or more processors1710 may optionally include a plurality of cores; one or morecoprocessors, such as a mathematics coprocessor or an integratedgraphical processing unit (GPU); and/or one or more layers of localcache memory. The base station 1750 may comprise memory 1702 storingvarious forms of applications, such as an operating system 1704; one ormore base station applications 1706; and/or various forms of data, suchas a database 1708 and/or a file system, etc. The base station 1750 maycomprise a variety of peripheral components, such as a wired and/orwireless network adapter 1714 connectible to a local area network and/orwide area network; one or more storage components 1716, such as a harddisk drive, a solid-state storage device (SSD), a flash memory device,and/or a magnetic and/or optical disk reader; and/or other peripheralcomponents.

The base station 1750 may comprise a mainboard featuring one or morecommunication buses 1712 that interconnect the processor 1710, thememory 1702, and/or various peripherals, using a variety of bustechnologies, such as a variant of a serial or parallel AT Attachment(ATA) bus protocol; a Uniform Serial Bus (USB) protocol; and/or SmallComputer System Interface (SCI) bus protocol. In a multibus scenario, acommunication bus 1712 may interconnect the base station 1750 with atleast one other server. Other components that may optionally be includedwith the base station 1750 (though not shown in the schematic diagram1700 of FIG. 17) include a display; a display adapter, such as agraphical processing unit (GPU); input peripherals, such as a keyboardand/or mouse; and/or a flash memory device that may store a basicinput/output system (BIOS) routine that facilitates booting the basestation 1750 to a state of readiness, etc.

The base station 1750 may operate in various physical enclosures, suchas a desktop or tower, and/or may be integrated with a display as an“all-in-one” device. The base station 1750 may be mounted horizontallyand/or in a cabinet or rack, and/or may simply comprise aninterconnected set of components. The base station 1750 may comprise adedicated and/or shared power supply 1718 that supplies and/or regulatespower for the other components. The base station 1750 may provide powerto and/or receive power from another base station and/or server and/orother devices. The base station 1750 may comprise a shared and/ordedicated climate control unit 1720 that regulates climate properties,such as temperature, humidity, and/or airflow. Many such base stations1750 may be configured and/or adapted to utilize at least a portion ofthe techniques presented herein.

FIG. 18 presents a schematic architecture diagram 1800 of a userequipment (UE) 1850 (e.g., a communication device) whereupon at least aportion of the techniques presented herein may be implemented. Such a UE1850 may vary widely in configuration and/or capabilities, in order toprovide a variety of functionality to a user. The UE 1850 may beprovided in a variety of form factors, such as a mobile phone (e.g., asmartphone); a desktop or tower workstation; an “all-in-one” deviceintegrated with a display 1808; a laptop, tablet, convertible tablet, orpalmtop device; a wearable device, such as mountable in a headset,eyeglass, earpiece, and/or wristwatch, and/or integrated with an articleof clothing; and/or a component of a piece of furniture, such as atabletop, and/or of another device, such as a vehicle or residence. TheUE 1850 may serve the user in a variety of roles, such as a telephone, aworkstation, kiosk, media player, gaming device, and/or appliance.

The UE 1850 may comprise one or more (e.g., hardware) processors 1810that process instructions. The one or more processors 1810 mayoptionally include a plurality of cores; one or more coprocessors, suchas a mathematics coprocessor or an integrated graphical processing unit(GPU); and/or one or more layers of local cache memory. The UE 1850 maycomprise memory 1801 storing various forms of applications, such as anoperating system 1803; one or more user applications 1802, such asdocument applications, media applications, file and/or data accessapplications, communication applications, such as web browsers and/oremail clients, utilities, and/or games; and/or drivers for variousperipherals. The UE 1850 may comprise a variety of peripheralcomponents, such as a wired and/or wireless network adapter 1806connectible to a local area network and/or wide area network; one ormore output components, such as a display 1808 coupled with a displayadapter (optionally including a graphical processing unit (GPU)), asound adapter coupled with a speaker, and/or a printer; input devicesfor receiving input from the user, such as a keyboard 1811, a mouse, amicrophone, a camera, and/or a touch-sensitive component of the display1808; and/or environmental sensors, such as a GPS receiver 1819 thatdetects the location, velocity, and/or acceleration of the UE 1850, acompass, accelerometer, and/or gyroscope that detects a physicalorientation of the UE 1850. Other components that may optionally beincluded with the UE 1850 (though not shown in the schematicarchitecture diagram 1800 of FIG. 18) include one or more storagecomponents, such as a hard disk drive, a solid-state storage device(SSD), a flash memory device, and/or a magnetic and/or optical diskreader; a flash memory device that may store a basic input/output system(BIOS) routine that facilitates booting the UE 1850 to a state ofreadiness; and/or a climate control unit that regulates climateproperties, such as temperature, humidity, and airflow, etc.

The UE 1850 may comprise a mainboard featuring one or more communicationbuses 1812 that interconnect the processor 1810, the memory 1801, and/orvarious peripherals, using a variety of bus technologies, such as avariant of a serial or parallel AT Attachment (ATA) bus protocol; theUniform Serial Bus (USB) protocol; and/or the Small Computer SystemInterface (SCI) bus protocol. The UE 1850 may comprise a dedicatedand/or shared power supply 1818 that supplies and/or regulates power forother components, and/or a battery 1804 that stores power for use whilethe UE 1850 is not connected to a power source via the power supply1818. The UE 1850 may provide power to and/or receive power from otherclient devices.

FIG. 19 is an illustration of a scenario 1900 involving an examplenon-transitory computer readable medium 1902. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium 1902 may comprise processor-executableinstructions 1912 that when executed by a processor 1916 causeperformance (e.g., by the processor 1916) of at least some of theprovisions herein. The non-transitory computer readable medium 1902 maycomprise a memory semiconductor (e.g., a semiconductor utilizing staticrandom access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/orsynchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) technologies), aplatter of a hard disk drives, a flash memory device, or a magnetic oroptical disc (such as a compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD),and/or floppy disk). The example non-transitory computer readable medium1902 stores computer-readable data 1904 that, when subjected to reading1906 by a reader 1910 of a device 1908 (e.g., a read head of a hard diskdrive, or a read operation invoked on a solid-state storage device),express the processor-executable instructions 1912. In some embodiments,the processor-executable instructions 1912, when executed, causeperformance of operations, such as at least some of the example methodof FIGS. 2 and 3, for example. In some embodiments, theprocessor-executable instructions 1912 are configured to causeimplementation of a system and/or scenario, such as at least some of theexemplary system described herein.

As used in this application, “module,” “system”, “interface”, and/or thelike are generally intended to refer to a computer-related entity,either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, orsoftware in execution. For example, a component may be, but is notlimited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on acontroller and the controller can be a component. One or more componentsmay reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a componentmay be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers (e.g., nodes(s)).

Unless specified otherwise, “first,” “second,” and/or the like are notintended to imply a temporal aspect, a spatial aspect, an ordering, etc.Rather, such terms are merely used as identifiers, names, etc. forfeatures, elements, items, etc. For example, a first object and a secondobject generally correspond to object A and object B or two different ortwo identical objects or the same object.

Moreover, “example,” “illustrative embodiment,” are used herein to meanserving as an instance, illustration, etc., and not necessarily asadvantageous. As used herein, “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or”rather than an exclusive “or”. In addition, “a” and “an” as used in thisapplication are generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Also, at least one of A and B and/or the like generally means A orB or both A and B. Furthermore, to the extent that “includes”, “having”,“has”, “with”, and/or variants thereof are used in either the detaileddescription or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprising”.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing at least some of the claims.

Furthermore, the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof to control a computer (e.g., node) to implement thedisclosed subject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as usedherein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, manymodifications may be made to this configuration without departing fromthe scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.

Various operations of embodiments and/or examples are provided herein.The order in which some or all of the operations are described hereinshould not be construed as to imply that these operations arenecessarily order dependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated byone skilled in the art having the benefit of this description. Further,it will be understood that not all operations are necessarily present ineach embodiment and/or example provided herein. Also, it will beunderstood that not all operations are necessary in some embodimentsand/or examples.

Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respectto one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modificationswill occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading andunderstanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. Thedisclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and islimited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regardto the various functions performed by the above described components(e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though notstructurally equivalent to the disclosed structure. In addition, while aparticular feature of the disclosure may have been disclosed withrespect to only one of several implementations, such feature may becombined with one or more other features of the other implementations asmay be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:forming a control resource set comprising a first plurality of resourceelement group (REG) bundles and a second plurality of REG bundles,wherein each REG bundle in the first plurality of REG bundles comprisesa first quantity of REGs, wherein each REG bundle in the secondplurality of REG bundles comprises a second quantity of REGs, whereinthe first quantity of REGs and the second quantity of REGs aredifferent, wherein the first plurality of REG bundles are interleavedwithin the control resource set, and wherein the second plurality of REGbundles are interleaved within the control resource set; andtransmitting a control channel using the control resource set.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of REG bundles and thesecond plurality of REG bundles are interleaved in an order in frequencydomain.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein a first subset of REG bundlesfrom the first plurality of REG bundles are candidates for highaggregation level, and wherein a second subset of REG bundles from thesecond plurality of REG bundles are candidates for low aggregationlevel.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein each REG bundle from the secondsubset of REG bundles has a resource range that correspond to a resourcefrom a REG bundle from the first subset of REG bundles.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein each REG bundle from the first plurality of REG bundlesforms one control channel element (CCE).
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein every N consecutive REG bundles from the second plurality of REGbundles forms one control channel element (CCE), and wherein N is apositive integer greater than
 1. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thecontrol resource set includes a plurality of control channel elements(CCEs), wherein each CCE is associated with one REG bundle from thefirst plurality of REG bundles, and wherein at least some CCEs from theplurality of CCEs are associated with the second plurality of REGbundles.
 8. A device for wireless communication, comprising: a processorconfigured to: form a control resource set comprising a first pluralityof resource element group (REG) bundles and a second plurality of REGbundles, wherein each REG bundle in the first plurality of REG bundlescomprises a first quantity of REGs, wherein each REG bundle in thesecond plurality of REG bundles comprises a second quantity of REGs,wherein the first quantity of REGs and the second quantity of REGs aredifferent, wherein the first plurality of REG bundles are interleavedwithin the control resource set, and wherein the second plurality of REGbundles are interleaved within the control resource set; and transmit acontrol channel using the control resource set.
 9. The device of claim8, wherein the first plurality of REG bundles and the second pluralityof REG bundles are interleaved in an order in frequency domain.
 10. Thedevice of claim 8, wherein a first subset of REG bundles from the firstplurality of REG bundles are candidates for high aggregation level, andwherein a second subset of REG bundles from the second plurality of REGbundles are candidates for low aggregation level.
 11. The device ofclaim 10, wherein each REG bundle from the second subset of REG bundleshas a resource range that correspond to a resource from a REG bundlefrom the first subset of REG bundles.
 12. The device of claim 8, whereineach REG bundle from the first plurality of REG bundles forms onecontrol channel element (CCE).
 13. The device of claim 8, wherein everyN consecutive REG bundles from the second plurality of REG bundles formsone control channel element (CCE), and wherein N is a positive integergreater than
 1. 14. The device of claim 8, wherein the control resourceset includes a plurality of control channel elements (CCEs), whereineach CCE is associated with one REG bundle from the first plurality ofREG bundles, and wherein at least some CCEs from the plurality of CCEsare associated with the second plurality of REG bundles.
 15. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereonprocessor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processorto perform a method for wireless communication, comprising: forming acontrol resource set comprising a first plurality of resource elementgroup (REG) bundles and a second plurality of REG bundles, wherein eachREG bundle in the first plurality of REG bundles comprises a firstquantity of REGs, wherein each REG bundle in the second plurality of REGbundles comprises a second quantity of REGs, wherein the first quantityof REGs and the second quantity of REGs are different, wherein the firstplurality of REG bundles are interleaved within the control resourceset, and wherein the second plurality of REG bundles are interleavedwithin the control resource set; and transmitting a control channelusing the control resource set.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the first plurality of REG bundles and thesecond plurality of REG bundles are interleaved in an order in frequencydomain.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,wherein a first subset of REG bundles from the first plurality of REGbundles are candidates for high aggregation level, and wherein a secondsubset of REG bundles from the second plurality of REG bundles arecandidates for low aggregation level.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein each REG bundle from thesecond subset of REG bundles has a resource range that correspond to aresource from a REG bundle from the first subset of REG bundles.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein each REGbundle from the first plurality of REG bundles forms one control channelelement (CCE).
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim15, wherein every N consecutive REG bundles from the second plurality ofREG bundles forms one control channel element (CCE), and wherein N is apositive integer greater than 1.